You could call her the Queen of the Dead. Walking Deadexecutive producer Gale Anne Hurd has been with the AMC zombie apocalypse show from the very beginning, through its behind the scenes up and downs and its record breaking ratings results this past year. After a more than two-month break, The Walking Dead is backSunday for eight more episodes of its third season. Hurd spoke with Deadline about the show’s return, the sudden exit last year of showrunner Glen Mazzara and how Dead comic creator and show EP Robert Kirkman feels about the detours the series takes from the comics. The seasoned producer also talks about the possibility of a Walking Dead movie and the similarities between her show and its fellow Sunday night airer Downton Abbey.

Deadline: I have to ask right off the bat – What happened with Glen Mazzara?Gale Anne Hurd: Essentially with the series moving forward, he saw Season 4 in a different light than AMC did.

Deadline: OK. That’s very similar to what he has said. With Glen having left, are we are going to see any difference in the show with Scott Gimple taking over the showrunner job?Hurd: I don’t think there will be any difference. We have the same writers’ room who’ll be contributing to all the episodes as we had before. We have Greg Nicotero and Robert Kirkman and producer Dave Alpert are still very strong voices. So I don’t think you’ll see a shift at all.

Deadline: With the phenomenal ratings The Walking Dead achieved in Season 3, are you worried the expectations are too high as the show comes back for 3B?Hurd: You know, you just have to put that out of your mind and just continue to tell the best, most character-driven, exciting stories. And we fully trust AMC to be able to market the show so our audience hasn’t forgotten that we’re there.

Deadline: So you’re worried?Hurd: You always worry. You always worry that people will find something more compelling to do at 9 PM on a Sunday night. But I hope that instead they’ll be sticking with us. I’m a Downton Abbey fanatic myself so I tend to tune in at Sunday nights at 9 and now I’ll be tuning in to the zombie apocalypse instead of the post-World War I English gentry.

Deadline: Doesn’t seem like there’d be a lot of crossover between the two shows and Walking Dead fans and Downton Abbey fans.Hurd: I like to think that we have a lot of the same type of moral issues and ethic issues that the cast has to deal with – ours is just in a heightened state.

Deadline: AMC ordered a fourth season of the show late last year. Going forward into that fourth season, how much more deviation are we going to see from the original Robert Kirkman comics?Hurd: From the very beginning we’ve made detours from the comics and that’s something that Robert Kirkman is 100% on board with. But we don’t do it just to do it. We do it because, as you saw in the mid-season finale and when we come back with the mid-season premiere, we have characters that aren’t in the comic books and that is going to take you in a different direction. On the other hand, we still have the Governor as the villain, we have Michonne as the warrior. We also have the opportunity to delve in even deeper because of the medium of television than you can in a comic book, we you have panels on the page and bubbles for dialogue and not a lot of exposition. Because it’s a different medium we can dive in much more deeply with each of our characters.

Deadline: Any chance we’re going to see a Walking Dead movie?Hurd: Not right away.

Deadline: Not on the table?Hurd: Not at the moment

Deadline: It would seem to be a natural next step.Hurd: Right. I mean, there’s an Entourage movie coming up, right? That’s what I keep reading. Right now, seriously, we’re focused on Season 4. If there was a movie, there are so many decisions that would need to go into it. The availability of the cast and all of that.

Deadline: You mention him before as a strong voice on the show but how deeply involved in the show is Robert Kirkman in day-to-day, episode-to-episode?Hurd: He’s part of the writers’ room and has been from the very beginning.

Deadline: You also talked about him being 100% on board with the deviations from the comics that he created. How has that worked?Hurd: There are a lot of times when he goes back to the comic book and goes ‘Wow, that actually would have been an interesting thing to do.” Keeping Shane alive in season two was something he fully supported and the change-up of having Rick kill him and then having Carl shoot the zombified Shane was also something he fully supported. In the rest of season three, there were things that I can’t talk about, but same thing, that he fully fully supported.

Deadline: On matters, you can talk about, how has your role changed on the show as it has grown to more episodes each season and the success it has had with viewers?Hurd: My role really hasn’t changed with the success of the show. It changes based on the number of episodes. The first season we had six episodes so I was on set the entire time. Last year we had 13 and I was on set amount a less amount of time. This year we had 16 so I was back and forth. Now, with 16 episodes it is a year-round enterprise because we’re still finishing the episodes for Season 3 as our writer’s room is coming back together for Season 4. It is more a factor of the number of episodes and the number of episodes is a result of our success.

Deadline: When will Season 4 hit the air?Hurd: I have a feeling that it will more than likely it will be sometime in October and more than likely sometime during AMC’s Fearfest. I don’t know when exactly, we haven’t even discussed it.

Deadline: Will you announce it at Comic-Con like you did last year?Hurd: I don’t know yet if we’ll be at Comic-Con. We don’t even begin those discussions for a couple of months. It’s contingent on a lot of things. It’s my favorite thing to do. I love Comic-Con so I’ll be there even if the show isn’t. I’m a geek anyway. And I love New York Comic-Con too and we try to be there as well. But part of it depends on what slot we get and if we have to shut down production. And that’s out of our hands.

19 Comments

The trouble w writer deal starts at top- and in this case, starts w her. But as long as she gets the result, who cares if writers leave? She can’t lead, but a good manager for AMC.

Kan • on Feb 9, 2013 9:36 pm

She’s a non writing producer. She doesn’t mention any female writers making contributions. She doesn’t hire female writer producers on meaningful levels. She will hire female directors. A job that’s no where near her expertise. I wish this interview didn’t all sound like pre-written marketing speak.

James • on Feb 9, 2013 1:52 pm

So glen was fired because AMC didn’t like his direction for season 4, yet there will be no change at all from season 3 to 4? Sounds like bs to me.

Cord • on Feb 9, 2013 2:16 pm

I’m always a fan of a TV show culminating in an epic film however I have this reservation: Don’t take this opportunity to try and make too much sense out of the origin of the disease. Other then that, thumbs up to the film idea.

Pistol Pete • on Feb 9, 2013 2:23 pm

Best show on TV. Do I dvr The Walking Dead or The Good Wife? These are the kinds of problem one wants to have.

merrranga • on Feb 9, 2013 3:22 pm

don’t call her ‘Queen of the Dead’ that’s mean. come on. she doesn’t look THAT much like a zombie.

Heather • on Feb 9, 2013 4:22 pm

After 2 fabulous seasons, I didnt much care for season 3 part 1. I get the exploration of the effects of a zombie apocalypse on humanity and civics, but I grew increasingly uncomfortable the further away the story moved from the killing zombies/fantasy and humans turning on each other. I don’t really find rape threats entertaining. I hope Part 2 turns back a bit from the darkness, else Im not sure I can stomach such fanboy entertainment.

tellmehowthatgoes • on Feb 9, 2013 4:44 pm

How much longer do we have to talk about this guy? He had nothing to do with creating the show, and his contributions were so grand they showed him the door. Can you please move on, he isn’t deserving of the attention —

David • on Feb 9, 2013 5:04 pm

Yeah that seems odd to me. There should have been more of a follow up.

AMC should stop screwing around with their shows.

Sheldon W. • on Feb 9, 2013 5:23 pm

Wow! It really sounds like she’s doing everything she can to minimize Glen Mazzara’s contribution to the growth of the show – creatively and ratings-wise.

So she is on SET! DOING WHAT??? getting in the way, making people run errands, eating the right food, having her car washed, A non writer who married well

everyone is a writer once there is something on the page

Jstaedler • on Feb 9, 2013 5:48 pm

I couldn’t stand Glen Mazzara’s commentary contributions on the dvd sets, so I am looking forward to that stopping…but I have to say that I am one of those fans that loves this show but also loves Downton Abbey. Thank goodness for DVRs so you don’t have to choose!

Jo • on Feb 9, 2013 6:29 pm

I’ve rarely read so much BS come out of one person’s mouth. The woman is so evasive she won’t even say if they’ll be at comic con? OF COURSE they’ll be at comic con. Jeez.

cj • on Feb 9, 2013 10:22 pm

I wouldove to know what direction Glen wanted season four to go in. The worse thing about season two was being stuck on a farm. I’m ready for them to go in and get to the bigger lurkers world. Travel more. Go on the road to get somewhere like when they went to the CDC.

josh G • on Feb 10, 2013 6:08 am

I miss “Dale” & his humanity.
Bad kill.
BRING back JEFFREY DeMUNN as “Kale” Dale’s unbearded twin brother!
Great actor Great part Great error in losing him!

Wha Happen? • on Feb 10, 2013 10:00 pm

Definitely saw AMC’s cheapness tonight. Apparently only 30 people live in Woodbury, way to scrimp on extras, AMC. And the way the extras behaved in the gladiator scenes was out of a grade Z SyFy movie. Who directed tonight’s turd?

And for the first time, I agree with those who say the writing is dreadful. From Andrea’s Randall Wallace speech, to Rick’s mental illness that only kicks in via hallucinations of his dead wife and Shane… Have the writers actually talked to someone with PTSD, or Bipolar mood swings, or schizophrenia… Rick is “TV crazy” at best.